Dust Cloth

At CVS or something the other day I saw a "photo technician" running film through the printing machine, and before he would put it in he would wipe the film off a couple of times with a cloth. I am wondering, is this why negatives so often come back (from anywhere) with scratches? Or is this likely harmless and is there a cloth that is safe to do this with? For me dust is a major PITA when scanning negatives, costs me at least 20 min/frame to get rid of it in photoshop, and I would like to know others' suggestions for dealing with it. At the moment I use compressed air.

At CVS or something the other day I saw a "photo technician" running film through the printing machine, and before he would put it in he would wipe the film off a couple of times with a cloth. I am wondering, is this why negatives so often come back (from anywhere) with scratches? Or is this likely harmless and is there a cloth that is safe to do this with? For me dust is a major PITA when scanning negatives, costs me at least 20 min/frame to get rid of it in photoshop, and I would like to know others' suggestions for dealing with it. At the moment I use compressed air.

Dave

Click to expand...

I am not sure. I have gotten back several scratched negs fron Rite Aid, and it's not just in house developing either, one of my send outs has the worst of it, but judging by the depth and leingth of it I would have to say that particular one was machined (I.E. poor handeling). I think it depends on the individual doing the wiping as I have gotten a handfull of scratchless negs as well.

I think the cloth will remove the dust and what not but the possibility of scratches is there.

For what it's worth I never use the drug stores, but I do still get scratches from time to time with processing from pro labs. Thus far nothing that has really impacted the image quality, but annoying nonetheless.

If they are using a clean micro fiber cloth, it shouldn't leave scratches. Micro fiber cloths can be used on len elements without harming them. I carry several in my camera bag for cleaning. You can't use lens cleaning chemicals with them, so I also have the traditional lens tissue and lens cleaning solution for when it's needed. But if the cloth is free of dirt and other particals, it shouldn't scratch the negative. What I found use to scratch my negatives was the negative cutting machine. That always put scratches on my negatives so I started telling them to not cut them. Then I'd cut them when I got home and put them in their sleeves.

Well, I work in a camera store, and I can say that our lab technicians take the utmost care in making sure the film isn't scratched. Usually they wear a cotton glove and feed it into the scanner while simoultaniously blasting it with compressed air.

The safest way would still be the air, you aren't putting pressure on the film, so scratches wouldn't occur.

If they are occuring, it is either in your camera body or lazy lab staff. It's like people complaining about over exposed or under exposed film. It sure as hell happened somewhere, and well, those are the only 2 places.